Sunday, August 8, 2010

New Champion Tracker!

On August 1st the Dog Tracking Club of Maine held its second Variable Surface Tracking Test at Colby College in Waterville Maine. To PASS and add to his name, Corey is now CT CH Blackthorn Coreopis of PatchMt RN NA NAJ. It is one year to the day that his mother, Carina, passed her test at this same site. Both had drawn Track 1 – now I will always be happy to be the first to go!

To show how difficult this test is, the pass rate is about 5 percent. In the 15 years the test has been around, only about 248 dogs have passed. There now 6 Champion Tracker Dalmatians, quite an accomplishment for our breed.

Corey is the ONLY Dalmatian who is also an American/Canadian Champion, not to mention those agility titles he shares with his mother Carina.

To become a Champion Tracker a dog has to earn their Tracking Dog, Tracking Dog Excellent and Variable Surface Tracking Dog titles.To add to Corey’s credits, he has passed all three tests on his first attempts, and has also passed his Canadian Tracking Dog and Tracking Dog Excellent test on his first attempts. Maybe we will now try for their Urban Tracking Dog titles. (Karen Hopmans – want to offer that one in conjunction with a Canadian National?)

Corey wowed the gallery with his near flawless performance, pulling me down the line like he was on a mission. At each of his articles, cloth, plastic, metal and that final wonderful leather, he threw himself to the ground, so proud of what he had found! We have worked hard to accomplish those “indications” and I was so pleased when I saw how excited he was to show me his finds. He did 648 yards of grass, dirt, asphalt and mulch in 14 minutes. A record for the 2 judges, Mary Thompson and Ed Presnell.

I love all the compliments I receive at these events. Things like “Boy, are all Dalmatians such great trackers”, how wonderful his temperament is and what a great working dog he is. He was so focused to the task at hand. Who says you can’t work intact boys in performance events?!? One visiting judge said she had heard great things about my Dals before the test and was so pleased to see all those nice things were true.

And, a very, very special Thank You to my very best friend, Linda McSherry. Corey was first alternate, and Linda withdrew Maeve so Corey could have his chance to shine. I owe her big time – and now it is Maeve’s turn to add CT to her name!